


lost and returned

by amybri2002



Series: bad things happen bingo [15]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Discussions of death, Drowning Mention, Gen, Human AU, Hurt/Comfort, being kicked out, injury mention, missing and presumed dead, past bad family relations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amybri2002/pseuds/amybri2002
Summary: Roman’s brother has been missing for five years, so long that Roman assumed that he has died, so can you really blame him for how he reacts when Remus shows up on his doorstep, soaking wet and covered in blood?
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders
Series: bad things happen bingo [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714939
Comments: 8
Kudos: 83
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	lost and returned

**Author's Note:**

> hey! so it’s been a while since i did one of these haha. i remembered about this the other day and looked over my card and was hit with sudden inspiration, so here we are :) hope y’all enjoy this~

It had been five years since Remus disappeared into the night. Roman had given up hope four years ago.

At first he thought that Remus might come back, no matter how many times his parents said he wouldn’t. He wanted Remus to come back, he missed his brother _so_ much. Even if Remus was mean to him sometimes, that’s just what brothers were like. Even if his parents always said that Remus was just a hassle, that Remus was better off gone.

Roman wondered sometimes what it would be like if he were the one to disappear. Would his parents think the same of him as they did Remus? Surely not, they always said that they loved Roman. They never really said that about Remus.

He remembered the moment he gave up hope as clear as day. A body had been found in the river near their house, a teenage boy, the same age as Remus would have been, a similar description as well. His parents never said anything about it, but Roman noticed that weird, regretful look pass over their faces whenever it was mentioned, and the way they always told Roman to stay away from the river, to stay safe.

Occasionally Roman would go out and look, when his parents weren’t around. He never found Remus, or even a body - he supposed the body would have been taken away anyway, but a part of him hoped that maybe Remus had made it out. He knew that was stupid, impossible, but...

He just wanted his brother back.

Five years later, and Roman had moved out, moved in with a couple friends. He’d almost forgotten about Remus, about the boy who had supposedly drowned, mostly gotten over his lost twin. Remus was dead, most likely - if not in reality, in Roman’s mind at least.

So, when Remus showed up on Roman’s doorstep, soaking wet and drenched in blood, his reaction was perfectly reasonable. A scream, a slammed door, and a horrified expression.

“What’s wrong?” Patton asked, immediately rushing into the hallway. Roman had sunk down to the floor, holding his head in his hands and trying to push that image out. Surely that hadn’t been real, right? It must have been a ghost, and... ghosts weren’t real, he must have just _imagined_ it.

But then someone knocked on the door again, and Roman couldn’t say that _wasn’t_ happening. He breathed in and out as Patton went to answer the door instead, Roman shuffling to the side and craning his neck to look at the person on the other side. _Not_ his brother, _surely_ not his brother.

“Oh, uh-“ Patton plastered on a smile. “I don’t- Are you okay?”

“Roman lives here, right?” the person said. He sounded _exactly_ like Remus, looked exactly like Remus, and Roman was _terrified_.

“Yes, um-“ Patton glanced down at Roman, then back up at the Remus lookalike. “Do you want to come in? Or, uh, I don’t know, let us drive you to the hospital, or something?”

Not-Remus’ eyes widened and he shook his head, long hair falling in front of his eyes, sticking to his skin. Remus’ hair hadn’t been that long the last time Roman had saw him, and this person had a silver strip, which Remus did not have, so perhaps this wasn’t Remus after all.

Patton just blinked. “No to coming inside, or no to the hospital?”

“Hospital,” Not-Remus clarified.

Patton gave him a soft smile. “Ok. Well, uh, just come on in, I’ll go get Logan to patch you up. Roman, take him to the front room, will you?” Before Roman had chance to protest, Patton had moved further into the house.

He really did look like Remus. Older, less innocent, damaged, but Remus nonetheless. And Roman wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“I’m sorry,” Not-Remus said. “I- You are Roman, right? My brother?”

“My... name is Roman, yes.” He didn’t want to admit that he was his brother, because this was _not Remus_. Remus was _long gone_ , and nothing would change that. Still, he slowly stood up, and began to lead Not-Remus into the front room, where he allowed him to sit down on the sofa. He looked defeated, tired, and Roman couldn’t help but notice how his shoulders were shaking. “What’s- What’s your name?” Roman asked, hoping that he wouldn’t say Remus, _anything_ other than Remus. He’d rather have some old one-night-fling show up than his long lost twin who was supposed to be _dead_.

“You’re joking, right?” was all Not-Remus said in response. Roman tried his best to breath. “It’s Remus. You know. Your brother.”

Roman shook his head. “No. No - my- my brother died four years ago.” 

Not-Remus frowned. “Did I? Shit, really?”

Roman’s eyes fell to the floor. “I-“

“I don’t feel like I’ve died.” He hummed. “Hey, if I’m dead and a ghost now, do you think I can walk through walls? That’d be fucking awesome.” 

“You’re...” Roman breathed in. “Tell me something only Remus would know.”

There was a long pause, before Remus grinned. “We found a salamander once in the river behind our house, and you kept it in our room for, like, two weeks before we had to get rid of it before Dad found out. We named him Sir Sala of Waterlogs. He was bright orange and enjoyed eating flies, although I’m not actually sure if it was supposed to do that. We tried feeding it Doritos one time but that did not go well.

Roman felt like he was about to cry. No one else would know about that, so unless Remus had told someone (which was unlikely, Remus had just as little friends as Roman did) this was the real deal. He slowly made his way over, sitting down besides Remus and holding out his arms, checking to see if Remus was okay with a hug. He’d always been okay with hugs, always craved them, but Roman had always made sure as well, just in case. Remus sank into his arms, just as he always did when they were younger, and Roman failed to stop himself from crying.

He soon drew away from Remus, though, who wasn’t smiling like Roman was. He looked... sad. Defeated. And Roman didn’t know what to do with that.

“What happened?” Roman found himself asking, moving away a little.

Remus breathed in. His shoulders were still shaking, even worse than before. “Too much.” He didn’t seem willing to go much further into it.

Eventually, Patton returned with Logan, who, whilst a little confused, went to clean up Remus’ injuries - they were as bad as they looked, just a few small cuts on his shoulders and face, which Logan quickly bandaged up. There wasn’t much they could do about anything else, though - the bags under his eyes, the light fading from his once bright eyes, the way he bounced his legs and clenched his fists. Something had happened, someone had hurt him, and Roman wanted to know who, so that he could go over there and murder them.

“May I ask what happened?” Logan eventually asked, breaking the silence and causing Remus to stop moving. He glanced over at Roman, fear in his eyes, and maybe things were even worse than Roman thought. He’d _never_ seen Remus look so afraid. 

“He doesn’t want to talk about it,” Roman told Logan.

Logan moved his eyes over to Roman. “Can you, then?”

Roman thought for a moment. “He’s my brother. Remus. I, uh, he disappeared five years ago, I don’t- I don’t know what happened, he’s not telling me either.” 

“Brother?” Patton repeated, frowning. 

“ _Disappeared_?” Remus also repeated, sounding... shocked.

Roman just blinked. “Yeah? I- I searched for you for ages, but you never showed up. And our parents refused to even talk about you. Like, it was like you’d never even _existed_.”

Remus scowled. “That’s because they fucking _kicked me out_.”

They... what? “I-“ 

“Did you not know that?”

Roman shook his head. “No. You- You just disappeared. They never... They never said anything like that. Why would they do that?”

Remus laughed. “Seriously? Why _wouldn’t_ they?”

“I don’t know.” Roman stared down at his knees, pulling his legs up onto the sofa. “You were fifteen.”

Remus stayed silent. He lost his smile, face moulding into an unreadable expression.

“Where have you been all these years?” Roman asked, now more... scared, for his brother. He wanted to know that he had been safe. _Needed_ to know he was safe.

“Around,” Remus replied. “I... I was living with some friends for a while, then... uh, some more people. And then, I...” He trailed off. 

There was silence for a while, and Roman didn’t want to make Remus share anymore than he was comfortable with. Yes, he wanted to know what had happened, but... Remus could tell him in his own time.

“Who did this to you?” Roman asked instead, gesturing towards Remus’ injuries.

Remus shook his head, biting back tears. “I don’t know. I was... I don’t know. I got hurt and this was the only place I could go to.”

Roman breathed in and out, trying to take that in. He had a feeling that Remus was lying, but didn’t say anything about it. “How did you even know that I was here? I haven’t talked to you for _years_ , Remus.”

Remus gulped. “I saw you walking around here a few weeks ago. S-Saw you coming in here. I didn’t want to say anything to you because... I-I don’t know, I was scared that you’d hate me just as much as... as...” He couldn’t finish the sentence. Roman had a terrible feeling that he meant to say _their parents_.

“You’re here now,” Patton said, softly. He reached a hand out to Remus knee and patted it gently, to which Remus broke out a small smile. “You can stay as long as you need to.”

Silence again. Roman glanced around the room. “Could you leave us for a moment, please?” he asked his housemates. They both nodded, and left the room. He turned back to Remus, who had once again lost his smile. “Are you okay?”

Remus shook his head.

“Can I... do anything about that?” 

He paused, then shook his head again.

“Okay.” Roman breathed in. “Are you in danger?”

Remus snorted. “When am I not?” 

Okay, that was just a little concerning, but Roman tried not to think too much about it. Remus had always been somewhat chaotic as a kid, always getting into trouble and making a mess of things, so perhaps things just hadn’t changed that much. Yeah.

“Are you... sure that I can stay here?” Remus asked, his voice quiet.

Roman’s face softened. “Of course.” He scooted closer. “Why wouldn’t I let you?”

Remus shrugged. “Most people don’t let me stay long. And- And, I don’t know. You never tried to stop me from leaving before.”

“Because I didn’t _know_ ,” Roman defended. “I looked for you, really. Every day I was out searching for you, but I could never find you. I- I was always so confused about why our parents were never looking for you.” 

Remus stopped breathing for a second, before breathing out. “Please don’t tell them I’m here.”

“I won’t,” Roman promised. “Trust me, I haven’t spoken to them in ages.”

“Good.” Remus looked over at him, his eyes now beginning to fill with hope. Things were going to be okay. “Thank you.”

“It’s okay.” He opened his arms again, and Remus moved into the hug, relaxing in his brother’s arms as Roman began to run his fingers in circles on his upper arm, just below the bandages. “You’re okay.”


End file.
